James Mangold is taking over the Director’s chair from Steven Speilberg for the next Indiana Jones movie. No pressure. But Mangold, who directed the acclaimed film “Logan,” says he’s ready for the role.
Ahead of participating in tonight’s “Quarantine Watch Party” for “Logan,” Mangold talked about what he intends to bring to Indiana Jones 5.
“But like in all my work, I’m always trying to find an emotional center to operate from. I think the most important thing is, in an age when franchises have become a commodity, that serving the same thing again,” said Mangold. “At least for me, in the dances I’ve had with any franchises, serving the same thing again, the same way, usually just produces a longing for the first time you ate it. Meaning, it makes an audience wish that they just had the first one over again. So you have to push something to someplace new, while also remembering the core reasons why everyone was gathered.”
Mangold continued using “Logan” as an example, “For all of the things, and there were many that I freed myself from in the canon, in the baggage, to try and make the best story— the core values of Logan, of Wolverine, and Charles Xavier and the X-Men, were something that I felt we never abandoned. The core ideas of their honor, their sense of duty, and the uniqueness of this particular set of characters that they were outcasts, oddities. Beings that had no home in this world, and yet we’re trying to do good. Were trying to do something right and find their way. Those core issues were at the heart of the movie. And in any franchise I take in, I’d always be trying to capture and make sure that we preserve those core ideas that are at the center, because that’s why these stories are more than franchises. They’re the fairy tales of our contemporary culture.”
That Mangold understands that these big fantasy adventure movies are the fairy tales of the modern world shows he’s internalized one of the key learnings of Spielberg’s early works. .
It is also a good sign for fans who were disappointed by the fourth Indiana Jones movie which seemed too cookie cutter. While I don’t expect the Indiana Jones franchise to go dark and reflective like “Logan” did, there is definitely room to explore there.